Chapter 17

When Laura stopped by on Sunday to get her car, I had the first opportunity to meet her brother. After they left, I felt like I first needed a long vacation from my day off. I went over reports most of the day and determined that the new insurance company, for internal needs, was ready to go live. At the same time, we had chartered the bank, and it was ready to launch. Now that we had completed those steps, we could now add Freedom Insurance and Freedom Bank to Freedom Trucking. On paper, we'd handle each as stand-alone companies. At this point sales were definitely picking up, and I noted that ninety percent of the truck stops were up and running.

I had dinner downstairs and ordered a large house salad topped with a steak. When I returned to my apartment, I had a glass of milk and another piece of cake before putting on some music and relaxing. It was almost nine when I called Beth. Her mom answered. Her answering the phone rather freaked me out, but I was very glad that I didn't ask what she was wearing. I asked when they'd return and she told me that they were now on a plane to Nashville for a meeting in the morning and would be back on Tuesday. The information surprised me, but I thanked her for the update.

I was just picking up the files I had lying around when I heard the elevator ding outside my door. I walked to the door and there were John and Beth. I said, "What a surprise," as I stood aside to let them in.

John said, "We have the key to the place across the hall, so let me put our bags in there and I'll be right back."

Beth came in and gave me a big hug and a kiss. She said, "I've missed you Britt. John was coming up for a meeting, so I decided to come up and check in with my boss."

"I could lock the door. He doesn't have a key to my place, beautiful."

"He'd bang on the door all night, lover. We had our time and had fun, so let's pretend that I have a husband tonight."

"You're no fun. Can I get you a drink?"

"Do you have any tea, hot tea?"

"I can make some. Will John want some?"

John was walking in the door and he asked, "Will John want what?"

"Beth said she wanted to suck my dick, so I was asking if you wanted to help her out. Just kidding. I was wondering if you'd drink some hot tea if I made some. I need to know how much water to put in the kettle."

"Sounds good to me. I definitely don't want any dick though."

I didn't have any cups and saucers, but had three coffee mugs, so we sat in the living area while we waited for the water to boil. When I asked about the kids, she told me that Mary was now six and in the first grade, Johnny was now in the third grade, and was a precocious, eight. He asked questions almost non-stop. Beth pulled out pictures and I asked if I could keep them before I placed them on my fridge. John told me how they were growing and how busy he was taking care of my business.

"I'm not sure what'll happen when this all gets set up. There are different companies that have headquarters in different locations due to regulations and tax incentives. Are you planning on opening up offices or are they going to hire inside legal counsel and let your guy go?" I asked.

"We've talked about both. We work well with Craig and the guys running Stop and Go. I think we're going to open an office in Las Vegas and Nashville, so we can better service them. We have based the insurance company in Connecticut. That isn't one of our strong areas, so they'll be hiring inside counsel or a local firm. The Bank has still not made a firm decision and the truck manufacturing company is still on the fence. We'll still work with them all, but I expect that things will slow down after everything is up and running."

"Craig wants me to move to Washington DC, so I can help the lobbyists he's hiring to look after our needs. I don't want to spend all day talking to politicians, but I have a better understanding of the entire operation and can explain it better than anyone else we have on staff."

Beth asked, "You told me about that before. Do you want to move to DC?"

"Beth I never wanted to leave your bed, but you can't always get what you want. Mick says you get what you need. My thoughts are that they'll need me. We'll force a lot companies go out of business, which will result in them defaulting on too many loans. There is no doubt in my mind that these actions will make some people unhappy and they'll be calling their representatives to complain very loudly."

"Britt, I'm not for hurting others, but in the end, what you're doing will be helping so many."

"They won't be the one's complaining and keeping John here up at night."

John said, "We already have a team working on defense strategies to most of the obvious complaints."

"Thanks. It doesn't seem like almost two years have gone by since I graduated college. During that time, many things have happened. Sometimes it feels like time has flown by, but other times it feels like I've been working non-stop for the last ten years. I went to a lot of trouble visiting all the states to cross them off my to do list. Then had to go back and see most of them again for work."

Beth said, "You're that much closer to your goal. You know that Darcy is playing for the Orlando Symphony, and she stops by from time-to-time. She told me about the last night you were together."

"What did she tell you?"

"She told me that she felt so highly about you and that you were so brave to do this, and that you cried about giving her up, so that you could do this. She said that you had real fears about letting down your friends, family, investors, and most of all your employees, and that you were brave enough to take on the risk and responsibility because you believed in what you were doing, and that it was right."

"She told you I cried? I'm going to have to spank that girl."

"She loves you Britt. She's doing well. She's playing and has already been contacted by New York, San Francisco, and London about auditioning."

"I'm happy for her. I think about her often, but it's usually at the end of my day, which is way past her bedtime. I'll try to get by and see her play sometime."

"I'll make sure to let you know what her schedule is."

We finished our tea and they wanted to get some sleep. They were only an hour behind, but all the running around to get ready had worn them down.

I was up early on Monday, did my run, and swam before returning to see Beth in my kitchen fixing breakfast.

"How did you get in and where's your husband?"

"You gave me a key a long time ago, so I keep it on my key ring. John had a breakfast meeting with Joe, the COO. I had a new pair of panties and a t-shirt with me, so I thought about cooking back in your apartment. You didn't have much in the pantry, so we're having pancakes."

"Sounds good, but let me rinse off real quick."

I jumped in the shower, but since it was in the open, there was no door. Beth looked my way a few times, but didn't join me. The good news was that the pancakes didn't burn and were ready when I finished drying off. We had a nice breakfast together. I got a kiss and played with her tits a little before she went back to her apartment to get ready for the meeting, and I had the pleasure of doing the dishes.

The meeting discussions were exciting, especially when we decided that we were going to flip the switch in a month. All the new trucks were out at the various sites, and the warehouses were opening to transfer the freight for partial loads or LTL (less than a truckload). The Stop and Go truck stops were up and running, along with the bar code scanning system. Many of the other truckers were also stopping there for food and services. In addition to having all contracts in place, we had hired a sales team that was now in training, with many slots still open for the ones that would be coming over from the existing trucking companies. We were hiring truckers who were pulling their regular routes, but we were routing them to their home areas for a meeting on April 30th. We had let our customers know that on that day, we'd not be picking up or dropping off, but most were fine with rescheduling to the day before or the day after.

Craig was still working on the trailers and containers. He'd implemented a shrink-wrap system for loose pallets. The wrapping of trailers for advertising was in process. Coke was fine if we showed up with a Coke trailer or a Nathans Hot Dogs trailer, but we couldn't show up with a Pepsi trailer, so we had to program all this detail information into the system to keep us out of trouble.

I had a talk with Joe about the idea for fueling in different states to save on fuel taxes and he said that we couldn't do that because the states charged us for the miles driven in their state, not the state where we purchased the fuel. That's why we kept all the logs. We also had set up the scanners to track miles each truck drove.

I mentioned Christie Sox who had reviewed my business plan back in college and her comments to what she read. Joe said that he'd spoken to her the week before, and had made her an offer to work for him here in Nashville.

He said, "She called about a year ago and used your name. I told her that we'd be interested in her, but would need to wait until we were closer to the go-live date. When I interviewed her, I found out that she's been working for a trucking company in Oklahoma since she graduated. She was so impressed with your business plan that she wanted to understand the industry better. I interviewed her again a month ago and she said she has permanent teeth marks where she has to keep biting her tongue. She knows there's a better way, but your NDA makes her keep to the straight-and-narrow, so she just does what they tell her."

"I told her I'd give her a bonus for the fuel tax idea, but we'll just have to see what she'll receive from the idea about advertising on the trailers."

"She might not make much on that either. We're using it as a sales tool to close the hauling contracts. Some are just selling us their trailers, but there's a big interest. She should have a good Christmas this year, but she'll need to work a couple of more before she can retire."

"Well, those were two good ideas that I didn't have. I'm glad things worked out for her. Are you doing alright?"

"Britt, I'm very happy. Craig is great to work with, and I feel so needed. I see the things we're doing and can say I'm a part of that. I'm proud of the changes we're making. And, being perfectly honest, I'm also looking forward to the big payday."

"We still have eight years before we have to start looking at the investors with open hands. I'll be happy when we have their payoff in the bank."

"You and me both, Britt. Thanks for coming by in Seattle. I feel like I hit the jackpot getting in on the ground floor here."

"I'm glad we met too. You can't imagine how lucky I feel to know that there are people I can trust running all the different divisions. I have plenty to do and sometimes I don't agree with an approach, but after we talk, I understand why they feel that their way is best, and they understand my point of view. We often compromise or agree with the other, and there is rarely an argument about any of the decisions. With all the new concepts and ideas, I thought it would be almost like pulling teeth to get everyone on board."

"We're all working for the same goal and you've made it very clear what the goal is. That's why everyone is working on the same page. Keep up the good work."

"You too, Joe."

Our plan was to send every executive and many others across the country to different locations, so that on the grand opening day. We would have a presence in as many locations as possible and send a script to the site managers at the other locations. They were sending me to Kansas City.

On April 30th, I woke up and met about a thousand truckers in Kansas City for the Grand Opening of Freedom Trucking. I said a few words, welcomed all the employees, and did a quick description of how everything was going to work. Some were very happy and some weren't. I knew that this would be the case because some lived up to two hours from the closest Stop and Go.

I had the truckers break up into groups and addressed their concerns. We might have some that would work on deliveries where they could drive to the pickup stop in the morning and make deliveries all the way home. They could keep the empty truck overnight and do it again the next day. Others could move closer, drive further to work or change companies or careers. They all had jobs if they were willing to show up.